Just Another Night Chapter 1: The Hook, a shadowrun fanfic

Just Another Night
*** Chapter 1 - The Hook ***

Princess dropped down onto the couch with a satisfied sigh. She pulled up the edge of the bandage on her left arm to check the progress on the bullet wound and was pleased to see that the healing spell seemed to have done its work. Given another day, there wouldn't be so much as a scar left.

She grabbed the remote and flicked on the trid display, switching over to matrix access mode. Quickly scanning over her financials, she saw that Mr. Johnson had already deposited the Nuyen into the proper account. Running the transfer software that Slander had given her, Princess moved the money through half a dozen shell companies and at least a dozen other nodes to put it nicely beyond reach in case he tried a double cross. Not that she really thought it was likely; she'd done too much good work for Aztechnology for them to screw her over like that.

You hope, the niggling little voice in the back of her head reminded her.

She quickly squashed that train of thought by reminding herself that the ten thousand nuyen bonus indicated a high level of satisfaction in her work by her corporate contacts and switched the trid over to the news. Scanning the headlines, Princess started the playback on the sports recap and stretched up off the couch. She walked down the hallway past her collection of Escher prints and made the left into the kitchen, glancing at the door to double-check that she'd remembered to set the security locks.

Rummaging around in the cupboard, she pulled out, then put back a can of refried beans before finally deciding on the quick-mix chicken and rice. She poured the contents into the rehydrator, punched the button and waited while the unit hummed.

Suddenly, the trid chimed and the announcer cut off in the middle of the baseball scores. Princess jogged back to see the screen and grinned. Though she had no idea who the leggy blond trying to keep her skirts from blowing up was, she did know the one person who used that image for Trid calls.

"What's up, Slander?", Princess asked.

"Got a job, if you're interested", a sultry voice replied. "Grab your toothbrush and your charms, it involves a trip. Dancer and Beck are already on the hook, and they'll meet you at Matchsticks in an hour."

Princes grimaced. She liked working with Dancer, a raccoon shaman from the northern NAN territories, but Beck was always a hassle. Not that he wasn't a professional, but the ork had a thing for elven women in general and her in particular. She could look forward to a couple of gropes if they met up at the bar.

Of course, he wasn't the only one who's amorous interests would be stymied. She'd have to watch herself to keep from staring at Dancer's gorgeous, long, black hair and dark eyes.

Unfortunately, Dancer would be slightly more interested in what was in Beck's pants than hers, which always made for amusing conversations.

"Don't worry", Slander continued in the same, measured tones. "I'm sure Beck will behave himself once the run gets started."

"You seem pretty confident that I'll go along with this. What's the job?"

"Very briefly", Slander replied, "the job is to break into the hold of a ship, subdue some guards, and rescue a prisoner."

"Right. What's the catch?"

"The catch is that this prisoner is a top-notch programmer. He apparently created some code-morph algorithms for Sader-Krupp's AI division. Rumor has it that another group of runners swiped some of the code and turned it over to Renraku. You've heard about their...problem...in the Pyramid, of course. Well, apparently some of this code got loose and played merry hell with the systems."

"Nice", Princess said. "And whoever's sending us out wants the programmer so he can keep that from happening with their stolen copy of the code?"

"Got it in one, my girl. Of course, the boat you're boarding is one of 'Raku's, who want this guy to come in and fix the damage after they, um, liberated him from Sader's employment."

"Well, if we're taking this guy - what's his name?"

"Brad Harrison", Slander supplied.

"If this Brad guy's with Renraku, there's going to be some heavy opposition."

"Yes, and there's one other little...snag. You have to wait until the boat has docked. My source tells me that they're going to keep Brad on board, since 'Raku can't risk letting anyone know they've got him, but they're going to run a hardlink out to him, so he can get in and fix the Arcology's systems."

Princess frowned. "Why should we let him help Renraku? I don't exactly get warm fuzzy thoughts when I look at all the crap they've done to me."

"Because", Slander began, "if he doesn't fix the systems, the code might escape. Then it will start wiping out other systems, possibly destroying the entire matrix, and bringing civilization down around our ears."

"And that's a bad thing how?", Princess asked with a grin.

Slander sighed. "OK, how about this. If the matrix falls apart, you don't get paid, and all your current accounts get wiped out."

"Right. I'm all about that not happening."

"I figured you would be. Matchstick's in an hour."

"Hey, I just got back...", Princess trailed off as the blonde disappeared from her screen. "Oh well, I guess real food is better than dehydrated soy chicken anyhow."